State environmental officials in 2023 determined a wastewater lagoon serving Holland Lake Lodge had been leaking for an unknown period of time. It’s taken another two years for the Flathead National Forest to propose a fix to the lagoon, which sits on public land.
The lodge’s owner, Eric Jacobsen, says the road to get to this point has been anything but straight.
“It’s been far harder to navigate, and taken far longer than I ever anticipated,” Jacobsen told MTPR in a phone interview.
Jacobsen bought the century-old lodge last year promising to restore it and keep its rustic nature. His purchase came on the heels of an out-of-state resort company’s attempt to buy the lodge and massively expand it. The Swan Valley community pushed back, and the plan fell through.
Jacobsen recently got county permission to pump the lodge’s sewage into a separate holding tank while the Forest Service works to build the new wastewater system this summer. But he’s unsure if the lodge will be able to open even partially – it has to clear many regulatory hurdles to ensure the tank can safely store waste.
Engineer David Roberts was one of the first to discover the lodge’s leaking wastewater problem. He’s concerned the proposal to reconstruct the new system lacks detail on who will operate it. Montana recently loosened its water quality standards, adding to his worry.
“Really, the only way you monitor is when a resource is getting ruined, and with something like Holland Lake, you don’t want to wait until it’s getting ruined,” Roberts said. “You want to protect it.”
The Flathead National Forest is accepting public comment on the proposed wastewater treatment project at Holland Lake through the end of the month.
